Norfolk buys Military Circle Shopping Mall for $11M

The city plans to redevelop the area for mixed-use development

Published May 1, 2020 by Sydney Lake

The Norfolk Economic Development Authority (EDA) announced Friday it approved a plan for the city to purchase the Military Circle Shopping Mall for $11 million to redevelop the mall and surrounding area for mixed-use development.

“The Military Circle corridor is the crossroads of the Hampton Roads region,” Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander said in a released statement. “The acquisition of this site is strategic for the city and allows us to not only bolster economic development but to address resilience challenges by concentrating future development in this area.”

The most recent property assessment values the site at over $41.1 million, according to the EDA. An affiliate of Norfolk-based Harbor Group International facilitated the sale.

In 2014, the Norfolk EDA purchased the former JCPenney store on an outparcel of the mall (highlighted in yellow in photo) for $2.3 million and redeveloped the 200,000-square-foot building into an office building, which is now 100% leased. The purchase announced Friday includes the remaining mall property and its surrounding outparcels (shown in green).

A state-funded study released in 2017 showed that there is potential for more than 6,000 housing units and 16 million square feet of development in the Military Circle corridor (the area that includes Military Circle Mall, Military Highway and Norfolk International Airport), and the city has been planning to use this space for mixed-use development.

“This acquisition will accelerate our efforts to redevelop this corridor bringing new jobs and quality new development while increasing the city’s tax base,” EDA Executive Director Jared Chalk said in a statement.